Amy Van Dyken 'walked through hell with a smile on her face'

Olympian Amy Van Dyken, recently paralyzed from an ATV accident, is headed to rehab where she plans to "rock it out" in a purple wheel chair with hair to match.

Amy Van Dyken and her neurosurgeon Luis Manuel Tumialan talk to the media before she is transferred from Scottsdale to a Denver-area hospital for treatment. Van Dyken suffered an injury to her spine in an ATV accident.(Photo: Jeff Metcalfe/azcentral sports)

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Olympic swimming champion Amy Van Dyken-Rouen has stared down death twice this month — first in an all-terrain vehicle accident, then in risky spinal operation that likely will leave her paralyzed from the waist down.

"Yes this injury sucks, and yes things hurt, but I'm alive," Van Dyken-Rouen said Wednesday from a stretcher before departing from Scottsdale Air Center on a flight to Denver, where she will continue her rehabilitation. "I'm so thankful to be alive. That's why I can be so positive about it."

In the first 12 days since her accident June 6, Van Dyken-Rouen has uplifted and inspired family, well-wishers and even her neurosurgeon, all of whom typically would be the ones doing the comforting.

Dr. Luis Manuel Tumialan, who operated on Van Dyken-Rouen for six hours June 7 at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn Medical Center, said in 14 years he has never had a patient quite like the six-time Olympic gold medalist.

"She has literally walked through hell with a smile on her face, the likes of which I've never seen," Tumialan said. "She's not smiling because this is easy. She's smiling because she is Amy Van Dyken-Rouen. I'd save her for last (on his rounds) so I can sit down and get a little bit of a lift (from her)."

Tumialan said it is "difficult to imagine" Van Dyken-Rouen being able to walk again.

Van Dyken-Rouen permitted Tumialan to give a detailed explanation of her injuries and prognosis and even show X-rays of her spine before and after rods were installed through fusion surgery. The risks of a life-threatening vascular injury and cerebral spinal fluid leak that could lead to meningitis were so great that Tumialan advised Van Dyken-Rouen to say goodbye to her husband, Tom Rouen, in the event she did not survive surgery.

"At the same time I was saying if this gets to be too much and you want to (let) go, I understand that too," said Rouen, a former Denver Broncos punter, knowing full well any such suggestion would ignite his wife's competitiveness. This is, after all, the same person who once controversially spit in the lane of an Olympic swimming rival and accused her of doping, willing to pick a fight she had no way to win without drug-testing evidence.

Van Dyken-Rouen was the first American woman to win four Olympic gold medals, at Atlanta in 1996, and despite shoulder surgeries added two more golds at Sydney in 2000.

"This is the toughest competition I've ever had, but it's completely different (from swimming)," the 41-year-old said. "I will say the fact I am an athlete and have been training really hard has helped me in this recovery process." Even the surgical scar on her back is healing faster than normal, she said, joking that it "looks pretty good for a scar."

Van Dyken-Rouen has no memory of her accident, which occurred after dinner at the Torreon Golf Club in Show Low, Ariz. She went over a curb on the ATV and down a 5- to 7-foot drop-off, according to a police report. Her husband rushed to her side and found she was not breathing, until he turned her over.

"I'm glad she doesn't remember," Tom Rouen said. "Some day I'll talk about it, but not today. It kept me awake for the first five nights" after the accident.

"He's the strongest person I've ever met," said Van Dyken-Rouen, who was accompanied to Denver by her mother and sister; Tom was driving north with their dog. "I will do anything for him and if living is one of those things he wants me to do, you've got it, man."

A native of Colorado who swam in college at Arizona and Colorado State, Van Dyken-Rouen will undergo rehabilitation at Craig Hospital. The Rouens plan to return to their home in Scottsdale at some point, and perhaps talk more family members into moving to Arizona.

Van Dyken-Rouen said her father, Don, has no feeling from his knee down to due acute myeloid leukemia and joked with him about having wheelchair races. "Maybe this will help him," she said.

The former local and national radio host envisions having a purple wheelchair, plus hair to match, tricked up with skull and crossbones.

"Every day you take a breath is a blessing," she said. "Sometimes we take it for granted. You can get through anything as long as you have a positive attitude. Once you have that negative attitude, you kind of go down that rabbit hole and it's really hard to get out."

Olympic swimmer Amy Van Dyken-Rouen, flanked by Craig Hospital CEO Mike Fordyce (right) and her husband Tom Rouen talks with members of the media about inspirational staff and fellow patients on the day of her discharge from Craig Hospital, in Englewood, Colo., Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014.
AP Photo/Brennan Linsley

Former Olympic swimming champion Amy Van Dyken-Rouen leaves the ambulance before chatting with the media in the hanger before going on an Angel MedFlight at the Scottsdale Airport on her way to Denver's Craig Hospital, on Wednesday, June 18, 2014. Van Dyken-Rouen severed her spinal cord in an ATV accident on June 6.
Charlie Leight/azcentral sports

Former Olympic swimming champion Amy Van Dyken-Rouen talks with the media in the hanger before going on an Angel MedFlight at the Scottsdale Airport on her way to Denver's Craig Hospital, on Wednesday, June 18, 2014.
Charlie Leight/azcentral sports

Former Olympic swimming champion Amy Van Dyken-Rouen, with her neuro surgeon Luis Manuel Tumialan, talks with the media in the hanger before going on an Angel MedFlight at the Scottsdale Airport on her way to Denver's Craig Hospital, on Wednesday, June 18, 2014.
Charlie Leight/azcentral sports

Former Olympic swimming champion Amy Van Dyken-Rouen, listens to her neurologic surgeon Luis Manuel Tumialan explain the severity of her injury in the hanger before going on an Angel MedFlight at the Scottsdale Airport on her way to Denver's Craig Hospital, on Wednesday, June 18, 2014.
Charlie Leight/azcentral sports

Former Olympic swimming champion Amy Van Dyken-Rouen is moved to tears as she talks with the media in the hanger before going on an Angel MedFlight at the Scottsdale Airport on her way to Denver's Craig Hospital, on Wednesday, June 18, 2014.
Charlie Leight/azcentral sports

Former Olympic swimming champion Amy Van Dyken-Rouen gets a hug from her husband Tom Rouen before being loaded on the Angel MedFlight Lear Jet 35, at the Scottsdale Airport on her way to Denver's Craig Hospital, on Wednesday, June 18, 2014.
Charlie Leight/azcentral sports

Former Olympic swimming champion Amy Van Dyken-Rouen gets a hug from her husband Tom Rouen before being loaded on the Angel MedFlight Lear Jet 35, at the Scottsdale Airport on her way to Denver's Craig Hospital, on Wednesday, June 18, 2014.
Charlie Leight/azcentral sports

Tom Rouen talks about his wife, former Olympic swimming champion Amy Van Dyken-Rouen at the Scottsdale Airport on Wednesday, June 18, 2014. Van Dyken-Rouen is on an Angel MedFlight on her way to Denver's Craig Hospital for rehab therapy.
Charlie Leight/azcentral sports

Sept. 16, 2000: Swimmers Amy Van Dyken, Dana Torres, Courtney Shealy, and Jenny Thompson receive their medals after winning the Women's 4X100m Freestyle Relay final at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre. The US women's 4X100m Freestyle Relay team finished first with a new world record time.
Rob Schumacher/azcentral sports

July 31, 1996: Amy Van Dyken of the USA poses for a studio portrait with her four Gold Medals during the 1996 Olympic Games at Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Van Dyken was injured in an accident on her all-terrain vehicle in Arizona. A hospital spokeswoman didn't provide details Monday on the injuries. The swimmer was hurt Friday night, June 6, 2014, and told emergency workers at the scene she could not move her toes or feel anything touching her legs.
Simon Bruty /Allsport

Sept. 16, 2000: US swimmers Amy Van Dyken, Dara Torres, and Courtney Shealy yell as teammate Jenny Thompson nears the finish of the Women's 4X100m Freestyle Relay final at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre. The US women's 4X100m Freestyle Relay team finished first with a new world record time.
Rob Schumacher/azcentral sports

Sept. 16, 2000: US swimmers Amy Van Dyken, Dara Torres, and Courtney Shealy yell as teammate Jenny Thompson nears the finish of the Women's 4X100m Freestyle Relay final at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre. The US women's 4X100m Freestyle Relay team finished first with a new world record time.
Rob Schumacher/azcentral sports

Sept. 16, 2000: Swimmers Amy Van Dyken, Dana Torres, Courtney Shealy, and Jenny Thompson taste some "gold " after winning the Women's 4X100m Freestyle Relay final at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre. The US women's 4X100m Freestyle Relay team finished first with a new world record time.
Rob Schumacher/azcentral sports